Every Wednesday, our class frequented a small, no.. very small, dive-bar at the foot of Beacon Hill and also conveniently 50 paces from my front door. It’s name was Beacon Hill Pub, referred by all as “BHP”.
BHP is like any other dive-bar. Smells like old sweat and beer. Decrepit old tables and stools. Cheap beer, including the infamous Brubakers ($3 for way too much Brubaker). But, there’s one small twist that makes it our home for the past… who knows how long.
Chalk night!
If you walk into BHP, you’ll notice that each and every brick on one side of the bar is covered with names from the previous graduating MIT Sloan class. This year, was our year. And so on June 3rd, we went at it with buckets of chalk.
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Tags: beacon hill pub, BHP, Boston, chalk night, chalking, mit sloan
Each year, over a hundred graduating Sloan MBA’s sneak off to the British Virgin Islands (BVI) to spend nine days on the open water spreading the Sloan brand across the many islands and ports. Nine to ten people to a yacht, we sail in the mornings, snorkel in the afternoons, nap in the evenings and party all night long, then rinse and repeat.
Everything is organized by the students from the trip plan to the meal plan to the booze plan. Take a short ride with me as I recap this AMAZING trip. The trip I’ll always remember – and if you know me, it must have been good!
On Friday, May 22nd, about 120 Sloanies flew in from various places to meet up in St Thomas, USVI. But first, we stopped in Charlotte, NC to wait patiently at the airport bar at 9am. Amazingly, Sloanies weren’t the first to the bar. But we were a close second. Alas… no photo-op there. Suffice to say, we were just getting warmed up. Keep reading…
Later that day, we arrived in the USVI in time to rush and catch the last ferry to the BVI. A quick view from the plane!
Two custom check-points later (future travellers take note): one in USVI (! aren’t we still in the US?!) and one in BVI. We made it to our boat, checked it out, sorted out all our gear and the excitement began. Our boat was a 47 foot catamaran, fully-equiped with a generator and air conditioning. A generator, you ask?! Just wait and see… we had a plan.
The sun had gone down, but Bobby’s supermarket (THE primary grocer in the islands) was hard at work delivering our food… and more importantly, our booze. About 10 cases of beer and about a dozen bottles of rum later, we were loaded up.
Gawd we over-ordered. Or so we thought. Little did we know, we’d run out in three days. Whoops?!
The next morning we waved goodbye to real showers and solid ground and set sail. Oops, but how rude of me. Forgot to introduce the crew and our fearless skipper, Morgan, and our beautiful chef, Julie.
“Captain” Morgan
“Executive Chef” Julie (left)
Oh… and our boat name? “Juggernaut B*tch” – from this popular viral video. Introducing the Juggernauts!
“Indecent” Indy
“Pringles”Jean
“Irene” Eileen
“Token White Boy” Rick and “Shady” Sandy
“Hatan” Ketan and “J-Pow” Justin
and… me… “Joh-dan” Jordan
Now that the characters have been introduced, on on to the trip. We started with this…
and more of that….
and more…
Which created many opportunities to.. uh… nap, making this a popular view.
Also making the next mornings feel like this…
Each morning, Captain Morgan would be the first up and start the boat out to our next destination. On the first couple days, we’d be up at around 7am or 8am. By day four, it was around 9am or 10am. By day seven? Captain Morgan would be driving solo until at least 11am. With some of us even missing the mid-day sun.
Though we snorkelled every day, I don’t have any underwater shots to share, but here’s a few beauties from above sea level.
And, of course, this wouldn’t be my blog without shots of the most important part of the trip. FOOD! Thanks for “Executive Chef” Julie, we ate well and ate A LOT! Her home- yacht-made guacamole was an instant hit. In fact, word of this amazing guacamole spread across the fleet. But due to an island shortage of avocados, it was strictly for Juggernaut consumption only!
Here’s a sample of the many good eats we enjoyed!
My mouth is watering again looking at these. They tasted as good as they looked too! Muchos thanks to sous-chef Jean!
Oh, and before you think sailing is THAT easy. We did have to burn a few beer calories once in a while. For instance, cracking open a beer, walking to the cooler and… turning a handle.
Check out these natural leaders. “Harder Justin, harder… that’s it… little bit more… perfect!” (TWIS!)
And after doing that for a little while, it was back to the beaches.
Yes, we ONLY stand in groups of five.
Finally, on a couple nights, we put that generator to good use. Behold!
That’s right… Rock Band on a boat! Yup, though we’re not all Engineers, a little bit of MIT managed to rub off on us still.
Hope you enjoyed the trip as much as we did! 
We’ll definitely do this again. Reunion anyone?
And… to my sponsor. This blog has been brought to you by…
“Wally the Destroyer”
Though many tried and failed, no one managed to ride Wally. Undefeated to the end of the trip, he took a steak knife to the dorsal fin and that was the last we saw of him.
Thanks to all of those that made the MIT Sloan BVI 2009 trip a success. And thanks to the many memories I’ll have with me as we all go our separate ways! Cheers!
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Tags: Sloan, mit, 2009, bvi, usvi, british virgin islands, wally, juggernaut bitch, bobby's supermarket, snorkel, scuba, yacht, moorings, catamaran
(From May 11-15… ugh so late…)
The last month at Sloan was quite literally a month of “lasts.” Everyone was alluvasudden nostalgic and doing everything they could to savour and do just about everything. So, we set out to assemble a week of events, which would assemble all of our favourite hangouts in one epic week. Epic.
MONDAY: Muddy Mondays
The Muddy Charles is Boston’s nickname for the beloved Charles River. The Muddy Charles is also the name of the graduate student run bar on campus. Quite frankly, it’s a bar of last resort for many of us, ranking at about the same level of Character’s Pub at the Marriott.
Truth be told, I’ve only been to the Muddy less than a dozen times in my two years. In fact, I’ve never been to the Muddy Charles on a Monday. In fact, I don’t even think it’s called Muddy Mondays. But that’s how we’ll justify going there on a Monday. And that’s that.
Headcount: Easily over a dozen.
TUESDAY: Middlesex
Ahh.. Middlesex. The club easily recognized by the troupe of breakdancers that dominate the front section of the dance floor. The club easily recognized by the eclectic clientele it attracts from across MIT and Harvard. Quite easily, the smartest club goers out there, yet not always the smartest dressed.
Headcount: Five. Not bad for a Tuesday. But we’re bound to do better on Wednesday.
WEDNESDAY: Alibi, then (of course) BHP
At this point, the word started to get out. Tweets were flying, Facebook status updates were roaring, word-of-mouth was up. This was going to be an epic week. Five of us were keeping true to the five-day-streak goal. More were going to join. And, boy, did more join.
We spread the word to meet at Alibi at around 10 and then wander over to BHP at midnight. By 11, Alibi was overwhelmed with Sloanies in our BHP-ready attire. As the hour-hand hit 12 and the Alibi cougars began to arrive, we took our debt-burdened wallets to BHP, where our dollars stretch a little further.
Headcount: Over 30 at Alibi; the usual 150ish at BHP.
Meet the crew of Tiger’s. Rawrr… (paw action).
W-C!… still trying to leapfrog “watercloset” in urbandictionary.com
THURSDAY: Benny Benassi at The Roxy
Mmm… I’ll let the photos speak for themselves. Actually no. Benny Benassi was AMAZING. What an awesome way to spend the last big Thursday out.
Headcount: One table of 10 troublemakers.
Look at these stunners…
Note Indy’s confused smile as he realizes he’s in a girls-only shot
We can’t help it… if there’s a star, YC’s gotta be there.
Here too, Indy’s smirk appears in the “funny face shot”
“Hurry up… I’m hungry.” – Shady
FRIDAY: Disorientation at Tommy Doyle’s
Following our traditional “re-orientation” session to get us ready to return to the real world, the party moved to Tommy Doyle’s to hear the Rolling Sloans one last time.
Headcount: Who knows? Sloanies galore!
The Rolling Sloans for the last time!
Five-for-five completed! Epic!
Filed under: Boston, Student Life | Leave a Comment
Tags: alibi, beacon hill pub, benny benassi, BHP, Boston, liberty hotel, middlesex, mit, muddy charles, rolling sloans, Sloan, the roxy, tommy doyle's
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